So what did you do at the weekend?

Well, after bumping into the "What do you mean it's a bank holiday on Monday?" trap that working for yourself occasionally leads you into, I ended up taking some time to head into town to pick up the Stereolab triple 7" and Burning Love Jumpsuit's CD from last year. I ended up heading down to the Winter Party in the Point with the brother and young Fitzgerald and his posse. Unexpectedly enough that I had to ditch the tunes in a mates flat and haven't had a chance to listen to any more than I caught in Road.

I'd flicked through Kid Koala (very high on my list of things to buy soon), Basement Jaxx (nothing to grab you, but I'm willing to give it a few listens for past glories), Luke Vibert (would have bought it in a different mood), LFO (again not immediately impressing, will see later), before hearing the opening song from Bring It On on the B.L.J. CD and my choice was made.

[It has to be pointed out that B.L.J. put together one of my favourite shows ever with what looked like a made-with-only-a-pause-button-on-VHS masterpiece in the Temple Bar Music Centre for their Road Relish single, and that I was moaning for a lot of the opening night of DEAF 2002 that I was working when I wanted to be down at the Sugar Club for the album launch. Only a year late in buying it.]

Winter Party was good fun, until Dave Clarke finished up with the Public Enemy and Anthrax version of Bring the Noise, and NOBODY apart from a few scattered fogeys and the crowd on the stage recognised it!!!

And Sunday at DEAF 2003 seemed pretty subdued outside of the techno room. It was all a lot less exciting than last year. The nicest Pixelcorps stuff I've seen in a long time. Work made me miss Click and Actual Size's bits. Tim Hawkins new stuff is very very nice and it would have been great to see on the big screen.

Finally got to see Ulrich Schnauss. More Sigur Ros or With or Without You droning, but I was pretty stressed when I got there and found it hard to relax into it.

But on the "ooh, what a surprise meter", Technasia and Photek scored huge hits.

So that's what I did. Now for more late night working while keeping an eye on Point Blank on the TV in the corner.